The Storm Shelter
by Mezi
Summary: Rated PG-13 for later content and language, just to be safe. Kuronue discovers a young girl and he takes her to the hideout. He can't understand her. They get caught in a cave during a rainstorm. He decides to tell her the story about how he met Kurama.
1. Chapter One: The Girl

**The Storm Shelter **

**by Mezi Matsuki**

**Chapter One**

Author's Note: The title doesn't make sense yet. I won't know until it comes when it will.

* * *

A young girl sat looking out through the crack in a door, watching all the destruction that happened. Her most noticeable features, jet-black fox ears poking out from her hair and a black tail with silver streaks, waved and twitched wildly. She had been a slave there for 12 years, and never once had she seen an attack upon her home. She had been born there, but her mother had gotten her out before she was forced into slavery as well. Three years later, she was found and returned to her master's ownership, but during this time, her mother had died. For nine years, she served as a maid, doing little chores and such until she turned 12. At this time, her jobs changed. Ever since that day, she had been kept in a little cell that was really a closet, at all times except when the master had her. She didn't quite know what was going on, only that she needed to stay silent and maybe she'd be able to get away afterwards. As she watched through the crack in the door, she saw the guard fall, dead, killed by a thorny vine. She kept watching through all the chaos, seeing everything she could remember as her life got destroyed. After she saw it all end, she decided to come out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          Turning around, Kuronue looked to find out what he heard. The sound was a squeak, like a door opening. As he entered the smaller room off the original one, he noticed a pair of silver eyes staring at him. He could sense the fear coming from these eyes, so he just pretended he didn't notice. After a few minutes of his pretend search, he decided to move a little closer to the eyes.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          As the girl watched, the man got closer. She hadn't seen him before, and she was more afraid as he moved closer. He was tall, with black bat wings and a long black ponytail that hung over the top of a black hat. He wore a black vest and a black pair of pants with a white cloth wrapped around his waist and secured with numerous belts. He had leather straps wrapped around his arms, and seemed to be grinning as he searched. The grin seemed to calm the girl, but only a little. As the man got closer, she tried to get to another corner without getting noticed. Suddenly, she felt a hand grab the collar of her kimono, and she fell to the ground, crying in her native language.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          As the girl sat on the floor where she'd fallen, Kuronue listened to her speech with mild confusion. He didn't understand it, but he knew due to her ears and tail and language that she was a youko. He wondered vaguely if Kurama would understand her, but then realized if Kurama didn't, he'd be screwed. He guessed by her clothing, a short kimono with a long skirt under it, as well as a collar around her neck, that she was a slave. Getting annoyed, he finally tried to make her stop whining.

          "Ok... shut up. Or at least speak common... just stop crying. It's annoying." As soon as he finished, she closed her mouth and stared at him. Her stare unnerved him a little, and he shivered.

          "C'mon..." He said, taking her hand. "Maybe Kurama will understand you..." _'And boy is he gonna love this... I can hear it now... 'Kuro, you're going soft! Bringing a kid back?! You're insane!' Feh... he's the insane one, sending us on this mission...' _He thought. 


	2. Chapter Two: The Cave

**The Storm Shelter **

**by Mezi Matsuki**

**Chapter Two**

Author's Note: The title starts to make sense now! Yay! Btw, thanks to the two people who already reviewed it. That was quick! ^____^;;;

* * *

          As the girl followed the man with bat wings, she got caught in her thoughts about where he was taking her and who he was. She knew he was talking to her, but she had no idea about what. She was still in plain shock from everything that happened, and was a little afraid to talk since he had told her to be quiet. She didn't quite know what he had told her, but she knew she was supposed to be silent. Suddenly, the girl snapped out of her daze by a fat drop of water on her head. She looked up at the sky and stopped, getting another drop between her eyes.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          As he was walking, Kuronue was just trying to get the girl to speak in a language he understood. As they walked, he got more and more annoyed. He began to think that the girl couldn't understand or hear anything, but then he remembered how she got quiet when he told her to. Then he began to think she was ignoring him, and then he just shut up altogether because he was tired of talking to himself. He didn't notice any rain drops as he walked, but when the girl stopped, he jerked to a halt and turned to find out why. As he did, he then discovered that it was raining. After about ten seconds of drizzling, the rain began to pour. Only in Makai could rain begin to pour in less than a minute. Looking around for some sort of shelter, Kuronue saw a cave. Taking the girl's hand again, he pulled her into the cave. Once they were inside, Kuronue began to build a fire with dried leaves and grass inside the cave.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          As she sat on the floor, the girl watched the bat-winged man as he began to build a fire. As he gathered things for the tinder, her eyes grew large. The man was gathering things in the pitch-black area of the cave as though it was as bright as day! She found that amazingly strange, and began to try to gather stuff from the entrance of the cave to help. This got the girl twice as wet as she was in the first place, since the rain was coming in where she was looking. Most of the stuff she managed to find wasn't worth getting wet for anyway, since most of it was also too wet to even light on fire. By the time she got back over to the man, he had a fire going and was sitting on the floor of the cave. She sat down next to the man and looked into the fire. She continued to be silent the whole time they sat there, but now it wasn't because she was afraid. She just didn't want to talk. She sat there, watching the fire, until the man began to speak again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          "I'm Kuronue." He said, holding out a hand. The girl looked at it, but didn't shake it at all. She sat there, shivering and staring into the fire. Kuronue didn't quite know what was so fascinating about it, but he decided to sit and stare too. The longer he stared at the fire, the more it made him want to talk. Suddenly he remembered a little bit of his past, which he didn't like doing. Most of the time he just avoided it, because the past was something that could come back to haunt him very easily. He remembered all too well the suffering he went through growing up. 

He lived in the backroom of a tavern, living off the pity of the barkeep. He was a mutt of a youkai, too many actual breeds to count, looking like something most people hadn't ever seen. He didn't know his mother or his father, and the barkeeper at the tavern had found him and taken pity. He spent his first 100 years there, until he began to hear rumors about a great thief. He'd always had to steal to get a little bit of extra food to eat, and he was beginning to actually like the idea. He decided that as a young youkai, one who'd actually had some experience stealing, that maybe he'd be able to get away from the tavern. Being scrawny and thin as a young youkai, not to mention an odd looking breed, he had always been picked on and messed with. He'd gotten tired of this, and he decided now was his chance to leave. If it didn't work, well, once again, he was screwed.   
          Kuronue wondered vaguely if the girl was interested in a story, or even if she understood him, but he decided he wanted to tell it. He began to speak out loud and tell the story. Listening to himself, he got to the point where he'd met Kurama, his best friend and partner.

"I was standing there, right in front of, but of course, another tavern. That was where the thief supposedly was staying. I went in, and then I began to look around the dark room. Asking questions got me nowhere, cuz nobody likes to tell anything about anyone. Eventually I got up to the front of the bar, and asked the barkeep about this thief. He said he didn't know. Now, most people would just accept this answer, but living in the backroom of a tavern, I knew damned good and well that the barkeeper knows everything going on in his tavern. So I grabbed him by the collar, and hoisted him up and glared. Even that young, I was still fairly tall, so it was a good six inches off the ground for the old keep. Before I even had to threaten him, he started pointing to the back and telling me which room to look in. I dropped him, went in the back, and began to follow his directions. Finally I got to the door he told me to go in. I knocked once, didn't hear anything, and opened the door a little and peeked in."

"I didn't see anything at first, but then I continued inside. As I kept walking in there, I noticed another doorway without a door, and went through it. When I went through, I saw something moving under a blanket, so I went up and poked it..."

* * *

***flashback***

"What the hell..." said a silver youko, sitting up a little. His head poked out from under the blanket, along with the female he was with. She was an ookazi-yasha, female wolf youkai, with blond hair and blue eyes, and she looked half-asleep and tired despite her fear. The silver youko looked like a girl at first, but then it dawned on me he was just a pretty-boy. He had silver hair and ears and a tail sticking out of one end of the blanket, and gold eyes that seemed to glow in the dark. He really was a very pretty pretty-boy, even though I don't swing that way. He looked like he'd be taller than me if he stood straight up, but I wasn't really sure at the time. Suddenly snapping awake, he let out a surprised yelp, wrapped a blanket around his waist, and jumped up, all in one fluid motion. He threw a seed at me, and then stepped back as a vine from behind me grabbed me. Up in front of me a few minutes later, he was glaring directly into my eyes and demanding to know what the hell I wanted. So I of course blurt out what I want.

_"Where's that thief?"_

_"Do you know how broad of a question you just asked me?"_

_"No."_

_"You are stupid."_

_"No I'm not! I'm looking for a thief that supposedly is staying here! The barkeep said it's true too!"_

_"What are you talking about?"_

_"I'm looking for a thief. He's becoming famous, and I want to talk to him. Where is he? Do you know?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Where?"_

_"Gimme a mirror."_

_"Why?" This achieved a look of pure stupidity from him. "I don't get it..."_

_"Obviously."_

_"Explain it then. There's no reason for you to groom yourself."_

_"Think of it this way. You tell me to show you where the thief is. I say give me a mirror. What will I show you with a mirror, you idiot?"_

_"Your reflection."_

_"And who's in my reflection?"_

_"You?"_

_"Right. Me. The thief." This earned an incredulous look from me._

_"No way!"_

***end flashback***__

* * *

"I remember it all perfectly. The day I met my closest friend in all of the Three Realms..."


	3. Chapter Three: The First Job

**The Storm Shelter **

**by Mezi Matsuki**

**Chapter Three**

Author's Note: I'm having fun with a fanfic! Wow!! ^____^;;; I didn't know I could have fun writing... lol.

* * *

          The girl sat there, listening to the man's story. He said something to her, something she assumed to be his name. She was pretty sure he had said 'Kuronue', but she really wasn't positive. She also knew that he was telling her some sort of story, but she once again didn't understand him. She didn't quite understand the point of telling her things; it wasn't as if she understood them. Mostly she just sat in front of the fire and listened to it, staring into the fire, but she nodded occasionally to make Kuronue keep telling the story. Despite not understanding any of it, it was comforting to have something alive talking to her. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          Kuronue paused in his story for a moment, long enough to re-stoke the fire and think as he was doing it. _'Why am I telling her this? She doesn't get it... So that really doesn't make sense, cuz I don't like telling it period. Maybe I just think it's ok to tell her, since she definitely can't tell anyone else. How can you tell someone something in a language you can't understand?'_ He thought. _'Whatever. I like telling it... strange... oh well...'_ Finishing with the fire, he stepped back and sat down on the ground in his spot again. A few minutes later, he began to tell the story again.

          "Later on, after I introduced myself and explained to the youko what I wanted, he introduced himself. He said his name was Kurama, and that he wasn't looking for a partner. He just happened to be working in that area. I still didn't quite believe that he was the famous thief I'd heard about, since he didn't look any older than me. I wanted proof that he was the thief I'd heard so many rumors about, just because I was tired of hi smart mouth. I bet that I could do better on a job than he could. I think, in my annoyance, that my exact words were 'I can steal better than you any day, pretty-boy! I'd love to see you lose, just to shut you up!'. This, as I later learned, is a stupid thing to do. Or rather, it's completely stupid to challenge Kurama to anything. The egotistical idiot will go along with any dare, just to prove he can. That's his only weakness."

"Anyway, when I challenged him, he got this strange glimmer in his eye, which at the time I thought nothing of. Now, I'm afraid of him when he gets that glimmer in his eye. So he answered my call with 'Alright. Tonight work for you, Bigmouth? I'll cut you down to size, easy. This won't even cause a sweat.'. The next few hours wasn't anything really important, but later that night I found myself in front of a castle, a huge castle with lots of towers. Now, in truth that scared the crap out of me, since I hadn't ever done a job like this before, but there was no way I was gonna let him win..."

* * *

***flashback***__

_          "Now then, Batboy, first one to get back out of there, with the mirror, wins. And that means you have to get out ALIVE. Getting yourself killed and thrown outside with the mirror doesn't count. And I don't plan on saving your ass, so don't bother me. You attack me, and you're screwed. Just letting you know that." Said Kurama, stretching his hands into the air over his head. Rolling my eyes, I just turned towards the castle. "On the count of three, we go in. One, two, three!" With that, we were both off. He took of in one direction, while I went the other. I got in and was going smoothly, nothing attacking me, for at least twenty minutes. By that time, I wondered how Kurama was doing, and turned to go back. I turned, and moved too quickly, with my wings flying out behind me. When they fly out, it's harder to control them, and they hit some wards that I didn't notice on some trees. When they touched the wards, and stinging feelings shot through the sensitive skin and muscles. I sunk to the ground, kneeling there on my hands and knees for a few minutes until the pain stopped. By the time it did, however, there were guards surrounding me._

_At this point, I did what came natural: I summoned my scythes. I tossed a chain up into the tree, hopped, and swung myself up there. I was careful not to touch anymore of those wards, and I began moving branch to branch, tossing my scythes and knocking out guard by guard as I went. I got to the last tree branch, but there was still two guards left. Jumping off the branch, I opened my wings and let myself flip over to land behind them. As I landed, I tossed both scythes out, hitting one guard, killing him, and the other scythe kept going. The second guard saw the first one fall, and he moved aside in time for my second scythe to miss. It kept going long enough to lodge itself in a tree, stuck enough that I couldn't pull it out with a quick flick on the chain like usual. Getting frustrated, I dropped the chain on that one and tossed the other one, which had come back when I pulled on it. _

_          This scythe also missed, and I pulled it back in time to prevent losing it too. Suddenly I heard a laugh, and saw a bit of silver go behind the guard, and without thinking, I threw my scythe straight at the silver. I missed it, however, this time, I didn't miss the guard. I pulled the scythe back, looked around for a second, and then went over to work on dislodging my other one. A few minutes later, I heard a yelp and a roar, the roar sounding too strange to be an animal. Grabbing both scythes, I ran towards the sound. As I broke through the brush, I stopped dead in my tracks. I had found what made the roar: it was a giant red plant with fangs. I didn't believe my eyes, and I stepped forward a little more to get a better look. Suddenly I heard a yell, and I snapped out of my daze._

_          "Don't go any farther! If it sees you, it attacks!" Looking away from the red plant, I noticed it was wrapped around Kurama's arm. I knew he could control plants, because he'd attacked me earlier with one, but I didn't know that he had things like the plant wrapped around him arm. "It goes after blood and fear, so don't step forward! I dunno if you're bleeding, but I know you're afraid of this thing! It's scared the crap outta me when I first saw it!" As I watched Kurama and the plant, he began to get it back in check. He fought with it for a few seconds, and then it let out a whine and shrunk back into a seed in his hand. He pocketed the seed, and then looked at me. _

_          "Why are you staring at me?" he asked. _

_          "I'm not. I was looking at the plant. What the hell was it?"_

_          "A Makai bloodsucker. As I said, it attacks blood and fear, but it doesn't notice them until you get in range. I just recently got it, that's the only reason I had to struggle with it to turn it back. I haven't gotten to use it." Looking at the bloody remains of the guards that attacked him, he continued. "Once again, you have more reason not to attack me." He seemed to have a strange fear that I was going to attack him. He glared at me, and said 'Well, I'm off. Later!' and took off running towards the castle again. This time I had no choice but to follow him, since I was also headed towards the castle._

***end flashback***

* * *

          "He still is like that. I think I'm the only person he's ever trusted to fight back to back with him. He's afraid that people are going to betray and attack him. Even then, he didn't trust me though. That didn't come until later either. Most people think he's a cold asshole, but he isn't. He's just afraid of working with people and trusting them."


	4. Chapter Four: The Door

The Storm Shelter By Mezi Matsuki Chapter Four 

Author's Note: I have not yet decided if there will be anything between the girl and Kuronue. So far, she's too young for anything. She's only 15. Kuro was at least 100 years when he met Kurama in my story, and that was a flashback. I think there is a LITTLE too much age difference. Kuro and Kurama may be famous for some weird things, but I don't think statutory rape is one of them. o_O Things may be different in Makai, true, but I don't think there would be that large of an age difference. She's a baby compared to him. I actually haven't decided anything about how this fanfic is going to work, or at least on Kuro's part. Not only do I have an option open for Kuro and the girl, I may go totally out there and develop something between Kurama and Kuro. It's the only shounen-ai pairing I even remotely like. I seriously doubt if I do that it will be anything sexual. I have considered both possibilities, however, and I do like them a little.

* * *

          The girl sat there, listening to Kuronue. She wondered whether he realized she didn't understand him, but she continued to listen anyway. At one point he stopped and stared at the fire, and the girl just sat silent until he looked up at her. She tried to ask him in her language if he knew she didn't understand, but he just looked back down at the fire and looked embarrassed. Not knowing why, she tried to ask him to tell more of the story.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As Kuronue continued to look at the fire, he began to wonder what the girl even thought he was saying. Or if she even cared that he was talking period. He looked at the girl to try to figure out whether he was boring her, and to his surprise, she was looking intently at him and paying attention to the story. She looked as though she understood what he was saying, although Kuronue knew for a fact she didn't. He stared for a minute, until the girl said something to him, which made him look back down at the fire. As he sat there, he remembered more of the story, and decided to tell it. Suddenly the girl tried to say something else, and he wasn't really sure as to whether or not she wanted to hear more. Looking up again, he noticed that she was looking at him as though she wanted something, so he assumed that she wanted him to tell more of the story.

          "After I saw Kurama's plant and I went after him, I eventually came to a door. Kurama was sitting on the ground, looking annoyed as hell, glaring at the door. When I asked why he was sitting on the ground, he grinned and told me to push the door."

* * *

***flashback***

_          "Why?" I asked. _

_          "Just do it." So of course, not being very bright at that age, I pushed the door. I also discovered why he was sitting on the ground, glaring at it. The minute I pushed the door at all, it gave way as though it was going to swing open. Just before it was wide enough for someone to slip through, it slammed back towards me, as though it was on a spring. I wasn't expecting a door to attack me back, so it knocked the wind out of me and sent be sprawling onto the ground behind me. Not only that, but I landed on my wings. I heard a crack as a bone popped out of place, and I just lay on the ground for a minute. I would have lain longer, but at that point, the pain shot through my wings from where that one bone popped out of it's joint._

_          Having the bone pop out of place is a painful thing, but I've gotten used to it now that it's happened a few times. That was only the second time it had ever done it, so it was rather painful. When I felt the pain, I shot back up into a sitting position, and glared at him._

_          "You knew it was gonna do that." _

_          "Of course."_

_          "Then why the hell did you tell me to do it?!"_

_          "I don't like you."_

"You son of a bitch! I don't like you either!" I shouted, launching myself at him, dislocated wing and all.

"MY MOTHER WAS A VIXEN, NOT A BITCH!" was his response. We both fell to the ground, fists flying and bodies rolling, and the fight lasted a good three minutes. After that, we froze. I had his ear in one hand, and the other around his tail, and he had his fist pulling on my wing. We called a silent truce, and rolled apart. We just kneeled on the ground, panting and glaring at one another, neither of us speaking for a few more minutes. Then, I spoke with an idea that had just occurred to me.

          "How exactly do you think you are going to get through that door? It's doesn't stay wide enough for either of us to slip through for enough time, unless someone holds the door." He continued to glare at me, and I knew his silent and annoyed look meant I was right. This meant neither of us could get the mirror, unless of course, we worked together. "We could work together... one hold the door and the other slide through... except, of course, that I don't trust you not to get the mirror before I get across too. I know you don't trust me." With a growl and another glare, Kurama looked at me.

          "I don't betray a promise, despite what you might think about me. If I promise to do something, I'll do it. Anyway, I don't think you could fit through the opening, period, even if I did hold the door."

          "What's that supposed to mean?" I said, getting annoyed again.

          "It means that you couldn't fit. I've got a different form, one that's a lot smaller. All youkos do. We can turn into a fox. I can get through there in that form. The only problem is whether you can get the door to stay open long enough."

          "And what if I don't want to hold the door?"

          "Then nether of us gets the mirror." Not liking that option, I looked at him.

          "So if I hold the door open, you promise to get it open from the other side for me? And that means without running off to go get the mirror yourself."

          "Yeah. Like I said, I don't break a promise. Are you gonna hold the damned thing or not?" he said, beginning to get impatient. Still a little worried about whether he'd keep his promise or not, I agreed. A few minutes later, I was holding a door open while he slid through. All of the sudden, I was struck with a problem: if I let go of the door, it would slam me back onto my dislocated wing. What was I supposed to do? Then came my solution: hold the door until Kurama cold undo that mechanism. Which meant Kurama wasn't going to undo it anytime soon, or at least I didn't expect him to. About the time that I was considering giving up and letting go of the door, despite my wing, it suddenly swung the rest of the way open. Since it was unexpected, I fell forward instead of backwards onto my face. Luckily, I caught myself with my hands and only hit my hands and knees. As I turned my head to glare at Kurama, I got up and brushed myself off. With a cough I stated that my fall didn't happen, and Kurama busted out laughing. A few minutes later, we were headed off through the hallways of the castle, and I began to notice my wing again. It was hanging funny, and I think Kurama noticed it too, because he made me stop.  
          "Stop. Hold still."   
          "What? Why?"  
          "Your wing is lopsided." He said, with a funny look.

          "It's probably dislocated..."

          "So hold still." With that, he grabbed my wing and forced me to hold still, although it wasn't long before I was squirming again trying to see what he was doing. Then he smacked my wing. With a shout, I jumped, and then I swung a fist around behind me, hoping for a lucky shot that actually hit him. He ducked though, and it missed, and pain went through my wing again. After that, I just stood still and let him look at it. I was sore enough already. After a few pokes and prods and pulls, he gave one last hard pull. I heard a snap, and then I felt a lot less pain in my wing.

          "There. Let's go."  
          "What did you do?"  
          "I put it back in, duh."

          "Huh... really..." Not the most intelligent thing, I know. Moving my wing a little, I looked at him. After a minute, he said we should get going again.

***end flashback***

* * *

          "Most people don't realize just how painful having a wing out of place really is. It hurts, a lot. I really don't know how he knew how to put it back, but he did. He's popped it back in many times since then, too. He's really useful, but I wouldn't ever tell him that to his face."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Yeah, I know, there was one of these at the beginning. I just want to say that on 1/29, that was true. Looking at it now, on 2/15, I have decided what I am going to do. Keep reading and you will find out. It's up to you, so whatever. Hopefully you will want to know though.****


End file.
